Brave ex-combat soldier stood up to Oregon gunman

An ex-combat soldier is being praised as the unknown hero of the Oregon college shooting for preventing the mass shooter from killing even more victims.

Military veteran Chris Mintz, 30, was starting his first week at UCC in Roseburg, Oregeon, to become a fitness trainer when 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer opened fire in a classroom.

Having just ended 10 years of military service, Mintz rushed to the scene and stood in the gunman's way, his aunt Wanda told media.

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"[He] tries to block the door to keep the gunman from coming in gets shot three times hits the floor," she told Q13Fox in the US.

"[He] looks up at gunman and says 'it's my son's birthday today', gets shot two more times," Wanda said Mintz told her on the way to have surgery.

Chris Mintz told the Oregon shooter it was his son's birthday before he was shot seven times. Photo: Facebook

Mintz took five bullets in total, hit in the back and abdomen. He also broke both his legs.

Miraculously, Mintz suffered no injury to his vital organs.

He has had seven bullets removed from his body and is set for a long recovery.

US college shooter 'obsesses with mass killers'

The 26-year-old behind America's latest mass shooting, at a college in rural Oregon, appears to have been a gun enthusiast who hoarded an arsenal of weapons and was obsessed with religion.

As a portrait of Chris Harper Mercer - who died in the carnage - began emerging on Friday, authorities said they had recovered 13 weapons belonging to him, including six at the school.

An official told the Los Angeles Times that the young man, who lived with his mother, was obsessed with guns and religion and had leanings toward white supremacy.

Law enforcement officials have identified the killer as 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer. Photo: 7News/Supplied

Celinez Nunez, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told a press conference that a flak jacket with steel plates and five magazines were also found laying next to a rifle at the school.

The rampage Thursday in the close-knit rural community prompted an impassioned new plea for gun control by President Barack Obama who said Americans had become "numb" to the horror of mass shootings.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon added his voice to calls for action to curb gun violence saying it was taking an "appalling toll" on American society.

A man who gunned down more than 10 people at a community college in Oregon forced his victims to reveal their religion before he began his slaughter. Photo: AP

Authorities said they were still trying to determine what prompted the killings.

Several reports said Mercer, who apparently had no ties to the college, may have been seeking notoriety.

"He appears to be an angry young man who was very filled with hate," the New York Times quoted an unnamed law enforcement official as saying.

A gunman has killed 13 people and injured 20 in a mass shooting at a community college in Oregon. Photo: AP

Witnesses have said that he demanded to know his victims' religion before gunning them down.

"They would stand up and he said 'Good, because you're a Christian, you're going to see God in just about one second'," Stacy Boylan told CNN, relaying his daughter Ana's account. She survived by playing dead.

A Douglas County commissioner told CNN that the shooter had been taken into custody. Photo: Facebook

Mercer's father Ian, reached by reporters in Los Angeles, would only say he was shocked.

"It's been a devastating day," he said.

School shootings are a disturbing reality of American life and many facilities have reinforced security in recent years, especially in the wake of the Sandy Hook, Connecticut massacre in 2012 that left 20 students and six adults dead.

There have been 142 school shootings in the United States since that tragedy, according to data compiled by Mass Shooting Tracker.